Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #10 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak bounced back against Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid at Masters Bangkok, eliminating the Americas runners-up in the first of two elimination rounds in Thailand.

It's been over three years since Sentinels and Liquid met in the VCT. The first time these two teams met in the server was at Champions 2021, the inaugural year of the VCT. Liquid won over three maps back then, but that merely knocked Sentinels down; it didn't eliminate the Americans altogether.

This year, the map count was the same, but the stakes were much higher. Both teams had already exhausted their lifelines and it was now or never. Liquid made the opportunity count, and eliminated Sentinels with a 2-1 victory.

nAts and patitek shake hands on stage Talk about a carry. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

For a time, it seemed like this could have been the year Sentinels finally got their revenge. After all, they won their Lotus pick 13-7. Of Liquid's seven points, four came thanks to Liquid successfully hitting Sentinels' A site, and two came from the pistol and bonus round of the second half.

But a switch flipped on Abyss. Both teams sank their feet into the mud and it got scrappy. Over the map's 30 rounds, there were 16 highlight-worthy moments: 10 3Ks, four 4Ks, one 1v1, three 1v2s, one 1v3, one 1v4, and a defuse with just 0.8 seconds remaining.

The crowning moment for Liquid was in one of those 1v2s. In the chaotic 30th round, amidst an A retake, bullets flew back and forth until only nAts stood. At that very moment, he swung out and gunned down johnqt and N4RRATE to take the 16-14 win, gifting his team the all-important decider.

After that, another switch seemed to flip. nAts kept up the form that allowed him to close out Abyss and Sentinels, comparatively, did nothing.

Liquid absolutely dominated their opponents on Bind. Sentinels were only able to win a single round. nAts showed a form reminiscent of his Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin days, killing 25 in just 14 rounds. For most of the map, he held an average of two kills per round.

In the end, he finished Bind with a 2.33 rating, 100% KAST, 289 ADR, 3.75 KDA, and 455 ACS. kamo was second to him, but with far inferior numbers: 1.42 rating, 13 kills, 175 ADR, and a 2.83 KDA ratio.

Over the course of the match, Liquid's IGL proved to be the top player, averaging out a 1.43 rating and a +26 kill differential. Keiko and N4RRATE trailed him in most statistics and were the closest players to him statistically.

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For Sentinels, this is the end of the road. Barring LOCK//IN, this is the team's earliest exit since Champions 2021, where they were eliminated in the top 12. They will have about a month to prepare for Americas' Stage 1, where they were seeded into Group Alpha.

For Liquid, though, this win is a beacon of confidence for the team, who debuted at Bangkok with a 2-0 loss to world champions EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) . Now that the team has surely shaken off some LAN jitters, and with a strong 2-1 behind them, Liquid are sure to feel more comfortable on stage.

But the fight is not over yet. Due to the nature of the Swiss stage format, the Dark Horse needs one more win if they are to reach the playoffs and remain in trophy contention. Should Liquid win, they will guarantee a top-four finish, the team's best since their Masters Reykjavik and Champions 2021 finishes.

Their last group stage opponent is G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf , who lost to EDward Gaming in the first qualifying match. But G2 are in peak form — that was their first loss this year — as the team went through Kickoff unscathed.

Liquid, however, have already shown how good they can get the deeper their tournament runs get. Tomorrow will be another test for the EMEA runners-up: will they be the third team to eliminate G2 from an international in as many tournaments, or will the Americas champions get revenge for Sentinels?